Title: Harry Potter and the Orb of Souls
Author: SerafinaMoon
Date: January 28, 2005
Summary: Voldemort has discovered a new weapon—the Orb of Souls. With it, he has discovered a way to purge the world—with their only savior.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, any of its characters, or themes. I will not profit from this story except receiving enjoyment of your questions, comments, and input on this work.
Claimer: I do, however, own this story and its plot and any Original Characters that I may use during the duration of the story making process.
A/N- I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to update next weekend. I'll have to do it the week after that and may have to continue doing this for a while until I am able to overcome my busy schedule and get more chapters written.
Chapter 5: A New Beginning
You think I've got it all
Everyone thinks I've got it made
Well, how come my only friends are the ones I pay?
No one understands
What I would do
To change my life
For just one day
Don't say "If I was you"
Or tell me what to do
How things would be
If you were in my shoes
Cuz, you're not me
"If I Was You" -? (It's from the YGO movie)
Naito awoke early morning at five like he had for the past year while staying at the Dark Lord's manor. Looking out the window, Naito noticed that the sun was not even peaking up over the horizon and wondered why he had never been permitted to sleep in if the sun was allowed to.
Knowing that it would not be prudent to practice his advanced magic where others may see, Naito knew he would have to continue getting up early to avoid any that might be watching.
The adults, like Dumbledore and Order members, would be harder to avoid, but could be done if Naito was careful. All that was needed were the right concealment spells and distractions...hopefully.
Naito could not foul this up or he knew that he would be severely punished, as the Dark Lord despised failure and punished anyone that did not carry out his wishes according to plan harshly.
Donning his regular black and gray clothing underneath his school attire, Naito left the dorms and exited the common room, exploring the castle as he made his way back to the Great Hall.
Several of the paintings he passed were snoring in their frames, as it was early morning, but others were whispering to their neighbors as he walked by them and Naito wondered if he could really accomplish this mission.
Naito sighed, knowing he would not be able to get anything done by worrying about it and continued on, leaving the castle and strolling out onto the grounds. Frowning at the openness, knowing that he could be seen by anyone looking out of one of the tower's windows, Naito resolved to find a better place to train...later.
Right now he had some exercises to do.
Starting with usual stretches, Naito moved on to push ups and sit ups as well as some other warm up exercises before beginning his martial art practices.
Naito started his martial arts' exercises with katas, which he practiced around the deserted Quidditch pitch, his movements fluid and dexterous with a liquid grace. His stances and actions were perfected from multiple honed practices.
After completing that, Naito walked over to one of the castle walls and cast a Duel Wall Reflection Shield on the outside wall so that he could duel himself.
Raising his wand, the training began. A blue substance jetted out from its tip, shooting toward the wall, only to be propelled back by a barrier invisible to the human eye.
The force prompted the water spell to increase its speed and with the growing agility, it soon came nearer to where Naito stood, carrying a breath of heated air about its sapphire glow. However, it never collided into its target. Naito had evaded the spell by simply performing a back flip. The blue glow dissolved in the shadowed forest behind him but its presence was not missed as Naito, with a swift lift of his hand, replaced blue with a silver spark.
"Accio rock," Naito murmured while pointing to a solitary rock, causing it to fly toward the spell caster. Three fourth of the distance, the rock met the silver to form a small blast of explosion that unless in the proximity of 6 yards, it could not be heard by any wizard.
Deciding to speed things up a little, Naito deftly cast a Leg-Locker Curse, closely followed by another jet of water and some other minor hexes.
The first curse came hurtling back faster than Naito anticipated and caught Naito unawares. He stumbled and fell over, just in time to see the water and other curses flying towards him.
Naito rolled out of the way of the water and quickly transformed into a bird to fly away from the other spells. Once he had a moment, he cast a Finite at the curse binding his legs and stood up.
After he finally finished and worked up a good sweat, Naito checked his watch and saw that he would have just enough time to take a shower and eat a quick breakfast before he would need to head off to his classes...
Wait a minute! Since when do I know when classes start! I've never been here before!
With a frustrated groan, Naito jogged back to the castle and down to the dungeons to the Slytherin dorms to take his shower.
Feeling refreshed and clean, Naito strolled out of the bathroom, droplets of water falling from his hair, catching the light from the lamps and making them sparkle.
Naito scrubbed his head with a towel to dry off as Draco came sauntering into the room, his hair slicked back with gel and a smug look on his face.
"So..." Draco drawled almost lazily as he sat down on the bed across from Naito.
"So," Naito quipped back.
"Were you really trained by the Dark Lord himself? I put silencing spells up this time, not that you really have anything to worry about down here in Slytherin."
Naito glared at the blonde aristocrat; of course there could be spies down here in Slytherin...what did the idiot think he was? "There are eyes and ears everywhere you go, Draco. You would do well to remember that, but as I know for a fact that no one is here at the moment except for us-"
"How do you know that?"
Naito glowered at Draco for the interruption, "I have my ways, but as I was trying to say...Yes, I was trained by the Dark Lord, your father, and a few others in the Inner Circle. I'm on a mission so if you hear anything at all about anything from anyone, be it Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, or even your own father...I want to be made aware of it immediately. If I succeed, we will win and no one will dare to oppose us. Are you with me?"
Draco looked hesitant for a moment, probably not wanting to reveal anything his father might tell him, but finally he came to a decision and said, "Sure."
"Good, now I won't have to Obliviate you."
Draco's eyes widened at this and he shouted, "WHAT!"
Naito merely raised an amused eyebrow in the blonde boy's direction. "I believe it is time to go eat, don't you agree?" Naito said casually, throwing his towel onto the duvet and stalking past Malfoy out the door.
Draco fell quickly into step behind him and the two of them exited the Slytherin dorms, heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Sitting down at a half filled table, the duo piled their plates with food that had already been set out for the students and began to eat.
Crabbe and Goyle came in not a moment later, elbowing everyone out of their way as they headed for the table and sat down beside Draco, inhaling the food as if it were nothing but air. Naito was appalled at their lack of manners and it took McGonagall tapping him on the shoulder to hand him his class schedule to snap him out of it.
"Thank you, Professor," he said as he gazed down at it, missing the surprised expression that crossed her face.
"What have you got, Nate?" asked Draco energetically.
Naito glared at him fiercely and growled, "My name is Naito, not Nate. Please refrain from calling me that in the future."
"Yeah, sure, whatever, so what did you get?"
Naito sighed in exasperation; Draco's exuberance was getting on his nerves very quickly.
"I have Potions and then Care of Magical Creatures today...I also have-" that was as far as Naito got before Draco grabbed the schedule out of his hands in impatience and looking it over for himself.
Rolling his eyes, Naito gathered his things, preparing to go to Potions as Draco hastily copied him so he would not get lost.
"Crabbe, Goyle, come on, we're going to Potions."
"Can't," one of them grunted.
Draco turned to look at them, owl-like eyes blinking furiously. "What do you mean you can't!"
"O.W.L."
"What blasted owl?"
"Results..."
"Oh, you didn't get the grade? But it's Professor Snape, why didn't he let you in? Never mind, you can tell me later; we've got to go or we're going to be late. Come on, Nate."
"Don't call me that."
Draco just ignored the black-haired boy and continued on in the direction of the dungeons. As it was, they arrived two minutes early and had to stand outside the classroom with the others that would be in N.E.W.T. level Potions...including one Hermione Granger.
"Hello, Hermione," Naito said politely while Draco gaped at him.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at the blonde and replied with a similar greeting. When the Malfoy heir regained control of himself, he dragged Naito away to a safe distance and hissed, "What are you doing, talking to that Mudblood!"
"I believe you just answered your own question; I was talking to her."
"Ok, but why!"
"Because we became friends on the train coming here."
"You what!"
Of course, Naito had not really become friends with the girl, not that he did not want to, but no one else was supposed to know that. After all, he could not let it get out that he knew they were spying on him while he attempted to spy on them. This was going to be fun, Naito thought wryly.
"I said-" Naito began, only to be interrupted as Professor Snape came striding past and opened the door so that everyone rushed in.
Naito chose as seat directly beside Hermione so they would be at the same table and Draco, throwing a confused, suspicious glance his way, would have to pair up with Pansy at the table beside them in the back.
"Instructions are on the board," Snape said after a five minute tirade about the importance of the N.E.W.T.'s, "you may begin."
"So are you happy to be back?" Naito whispered, as a way to open a conversation and dig for information.
"Yes," she said primly. "How was your first night at the castle?"
"A bit confusing at first, but I'm adjusting. Thanks for asking. Did you do anything interesting this summer?"
"Not particularly. I went on holiday with my parents and visited some friends."
Naito watched her carefully as she spoke and noticed her eyes dart towards Professor Snape as she said the last then back down to her caldron.
Was the Professor involved somehow with this "get together?" Was she talking about the Order? After all, the Death Eater spy was a member of the Order and slipped information to the Dark Lord. Naito would have to find out more.
"Did you have fun hanging out with your friends?"
"Yes, Fred and George, Ron's older twin brothers, are pranksters and kept us all laughing."
"Hm...and Ginny is also in Ron's family, isn't she?" At Hermione's nod he continued, "so I take it Ron has a big family?"
"Oh yes, he has five older brothers that have all graduated and Ginny, she's the only girl."
"Were they all there?"
"Yes, they came home for the holidays." On second thought she added, "Well, actually one of them wasn't—Percy and the rest of the family had a row and are no longer speaking, so it would be best not to mention him to Ron or Ginny."
Naito nodded and said curiously, "Came home? Where do they normally live?"
"Well, Bill's a curse breaker for Gringotts stationed in Egypt and Charlie studies dragons in Romania. The twins own a joke shop called Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley and Percy works for the Ministry of Magic."
"Interesting..."
"So how about you?"
"Hm?"
"What did you do this summer?"
Naito plastered a crestfallen look on his face as he replied morosely, "We had a funeral...I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind."
Hermione looked a bit put out, but covered with a pitying look. Naito knew she was fishing for information on Voldemort, trying to figure out what he was doing, but he was giving nothing away unless there was something in it for him. Until he knew he would be better off on their side than his current one, he would not help them take his Master down.
Of course, he could not just let Voldemort win this war either...once he was lord over everything, Naito would no longer be of service and would be disposed of. He had to make sure that when this was all over and done with, he would be able to live freely by himself.
"What do you miss most about them?" asked Hermione quietly, trying to trap him in his lie.
Naito gave a sigh and said, "The way they would look at me when I made them proud."
Well, it was not really a lie...sort of. Ganmou might not have been his father, but he had taken him in, named him, and trained him when he lost his memories over a year ago. While those looks of pride were few and far between, Naito was ecstatic every time he saw that look directed at him.
Knowing that Hermione was doing some fishing of her own, he was about to steer conversation back towards her summer, but Professor Snape walked by examining potions and halted all communication.
It stayed that way until the bell ending class signaled and they all packed away their books and ingredients and headed off for their next class. In Naito's case, this was Care of Magical Creatures, which he suspected would be shared with both Ron and Hermione, not to mention Draco who seemed to be suspicious of his interaction with the Gryffindors.
As soon as everyone began to leave the classroom, Draco accosted him at his table and began to drag him away to a safer place to talk.
"What do you think you are doing! I know you said you became friends with them, but Slytherins don't make friends with Gryffindors."
"Apparently they do now," Naito replied curtly, his demeanor as hard, stiff, and unyielding as ice as he began walking down the hallway.
Draco pulled his arm back and spun Naito to face him, his mouth opening to utter and ultimatum, but Naito jerked his arm from Draco's grasp and growled, "What I do is no concern of yours Draco Malfoy. I have a job to do and I intend to get it done, now get out of my way and do your job."
With that, Naito spun and stalked away fuming, leaving Draco to stand, gaping like a fish after him.
By the time Naito made it down to Hagrid's hut for the start of class, a group of Gryffindor students were clumped together, talking in hushed whispers and glancing every now and then in his direction.
Just as the half-giant Hagrid came striding into view, Draco managed to catch up to him and whisper and curious, "How'd you know to come here? It's only your first day of school."
Naito opened his mouth to offer a witty retort, but held back as, with a jolt, he realized that he had made it to the right place without anyone telling him where to go.
His feet had automatically and mechanically brought him here of their own accord as if the territory was so familiar that his legs needed no instruction from his brain.
What was going on with him? Why did he keep having these strange visions or memories—whatever they were—what did all of this mean
Something odd was going on and Naito intended to discover what it was.
Resolving to get to the bottom of whatever weird occurrence was going on, Naito turned his focus outward on the teacher and what he was saying.
"Alright now, I got summat interesting fer'ya today. Something I think yer all going ter like."
The class gave a collective groan at these words and Naito wondered what they knew that he did not.
"Now this critter was a little hard to git ahold of as they're hard to take care of-"
At this the class began backing up, Hagrid looked to them all in bewilderment.
"Now 'tis nuttin to be afraid of. Who can tell me what an Ashwinder is? Hermione?" Hagrid asked as the girl in question gave a great sigh of relief.
In a pompous, haughty tone (in Naito's opinion) she began to recite, "An ashwinder is a thin pale-grey serpent with glowing red eyes; it will rise from the embers of an unsupervised fire and leaves an ashy trail behind it. Ashwinders only live for an hour and will lay brilliant red eggs that give off intense heat that can be used in Love Potions once they are frozen or eaten whole as a cure for ague."
"Very good, 'Mione. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now, I only got one of 'em as, like I said before, they're sorta hard to git. So everyone gather 'round and write down yer observations on the little critter and I want a five foot long essay to be handed in on Monday. Now git to it."
With that he plunked a case down in front of them, popped open the lid, and left them to their own devices as he walked over to the side and watched the class write out notes.
Naito noticed that while they waited for a chance to get near the Ashwinder, Hermione and Ron walked over to Hagrid to talk. Carefully, Naito inched in that direction so he could listen to what they were saying without it being obvious.
"So what do ya think of the lesson, 'Mione?"
"It's very good, Hagrid, but I suspect that it'll get harder as we go along as it is our N.E.W.T. year."
"Yeah, you guessed right," replied Hagrid as Ron groaned, "I always knew you where perceptive. A bit too much if ya were ta ask me."
"Yeah," Hermione murmured, her countenance falling.
"Now don't go doing that to yerself, 'Mione. Harry wouldn't'a wanted ya ter be cry'n over him."
"I know, Hagrid," Hermione said, her eyes misty and glistening with unshed tears, "but I can't stop missing him. He didn't deserve it! What did he ever do to them! Why were they always after him, trying to kill him! Harry was such a wonderful person...why-"
At this she had to break off as her voice choked up with grief and her tears manifested themselves. Hagrid gathered the girl up in his arms in a firm hug as Ron looked towards the forest, discreetly wiping at his eyes while neither of them were looking.
"Shh," Hagrid soothed, "there's nuttin fer it, 'Mione. Harry was the sort of person that never backed down without a fight. That's what You-Know-Who didn't like about him. Harry gave us all the hope that there was something worth fight'n fer. You-Know-Who had to get rid of the Light side's symbol to cripple us, but we won't let his death be fer nuttin.
"The way I sees it, we can either give up and let Harry's sacrifice be in vain or we can follow his example and never back down even when there seems to be no more hope. You can do that can't ya? Jus 'member, Harry would have wanted ya to grow up happy, get married to Ron, and have a cupple'a kids..."
"WHAT!" Hermione yelped, blushing bright red as Ron's head whipped around to stare at the two of them in shock.
"What did you just say, Hagrid?"
"Uh...nuttin. I didn't say a word, now why don't you two jus run 'long and take yer notes now...that's a good girl."
And just like that, the moment was broken. Naito frowned in disappointment; that had not been very informative, but there was always hope for another day...
With that, Naito gathered together his quill, ink, and parchment and began to take notes.
(To Be Continued…)
A/N- Sorry that was so boring and inactive...I really don't like writing transitional or informational chapters. They're hard to write and annoying to read, but you have to get the essentials so...
Coming Up: Naito begins researching the Orb of Souls, but doesn't get very far as he overhears Ron and Hermione talking about the DA. After getting invited, Naito intends to do some investigated about this group only to be studied by Hermione as get into a duel and an Order meeting hosts an unnoticed visitor in Chapter 6: From the Outside In.
Review Responses:
MagicmanSmokegirl: (sighs in relief) good...I wish I could control Selina instead of the other way around...of course she mostly listens to me (unless she just goes off on her own, but sometimes she gets the better of me when I least expect it. Smokegirl, I agree w/your choices! You've got good taste! Oh, goody! I like you too! (glomps back)
Hazel-Beka: Hm...I'll try not to, but he may seem like it at times...if he does...remind me and I'll work on it! I would love to publish stories I write, but then I'd have to take time off of writing this! Besides, I'd have to come up w/an idea first.
Evaisy: Hello to you! I'm glad you like my story! I hope that you will continue to review as well! Thank you so much for your comments! Here's the next chapter for you!
Nicky: Took you long enough! But I know you were having just too much fun w/the originals...those can get a bit addictive. After all, I've read all of them except for the fifth one over twenty times a piece, no joke. The fifth one I've only read 3 times so far. Hah! That lama training camp thing really was funny! Hm...you found out about metamorphmagi in the 5th book so I'm sure you understand that now...hey, don't count Naito out of the running yet. They may know he's a spy, but they don't know how he spies...
Jin: You're name's at the bottom, because nobody ever reads my author's notes at the top from what I can tell and this way, everyone will see it! They have to when they review! You are so funny! I love it! Thanks for the compliments!
LadayoftheWood: I have three words for you...you are a dork. (yes, I said that on purpose)
Idunn0: Thanks for reviewing, Matt, but I'm afraid you're a dork too. It did make me laugh though, unfortunately Melissa wasn't here and couldn't give you a snort point.
Important Notice! If you did not read my A/N at the top, I suggest you do so now!
I'd like to thank my beta reader Jin Cheng for doing such a good job and helping me write this chapter! You did a great job Jin Cheng! I love you, Jin Cheng!
(There you are, three times in bold, just like I promised...your turn now.)